1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to penetration resistant life protection articles, specifically spike resistant life protection articles, and, more specifically, to spike and ballistic projectile life protection penetration resistant articles.
2. Description of Related Art
New penetration resistant articles are continually being developed because standards and requirements are continually being adopted or upgraded to provide protection from life threatening forces.
In September 2000, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) issued NIJ Standard-0115.00 entitled “Stab Resistance of Personal Body Armor” and NIJ Standard-0101.04 entitled “Ballistic Resistance of Personal Body Armor”. In view of these new Standards, there is a need for light-weight, comfortable and flexible protective garments exhibiting improved penetration against spike threats, or spike threats and ballistic threats, that can be worn on a daily basis to provide adequate protection, such as, for corrections, police, military and other security officers depending on their specific job requirement and working environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,358 (to Foy et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,711 (to Chiou et al.) disclose spike penetration resistant articles made from woven aramid yarns having a particular combination of linear density of the yarn and tightness factor of the fabric made from the yarn. These patents use yarns having a toughness of at least 30 Joules per gram.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,646 to Chiou discloses spike and ballistic projectile penetration resistant articles. These articles have spike penetration resistant layers and ballistic projectile penetration resistant layers with the spike penetration resistant layers on the outer side or strike face of the article.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,264 to Howland discloses a protective fabric that is highly densely woven. That is, the yarn cross sections have been distorted by weaving into roughly square shapes to form an overly tight interlocking structure to resist yarn movement.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,837,623 and 5,976,996, both to Howland, disclose protective fabric substrates made of highly densely woven yarns, including staple yarns. These patents teach that staple yarns are used only where the fabric will undergo slight tensile or tear loading, and that the use of coating on fabric can enhance its stiffness and improve its performance against tensile and tear loading. The cover of densely woven fabrics disclosed in these patents is significantly high, i.e., in the order of 130% to 140%. The fabric tightness factors for fabrics disclosed in these patents are greater than 1.15. Such fabrics are generally very stiff, lack drapeability, and have limited flexibility, regardless of the types of yarns used, because of the highly densely woven substrate of the fabric.
In view of the above, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved flexible light weight article that resists penetration by spikes, and optionally also ballistic projectiles.